Source: Edition: Country: Date: Page: Area: Circulation: Ad data: Phone:
The Sunday Telegraph {Discover}
Keyword:
Bosch 500 Year
UK Sunday 21, February 2016 11 1025 sq. cm ABC 355044 Weekly page rate £34,000.00, scc rate £80.00 020 7538 5000
The weird and the wonderful Nick Trend steps into the strange world of Hieronymus Bosch as the artist’s home town celebrates his life and work
H
ad he lived another 500 years, Hieronymus Bosch would, I think, have been shocked by what had happened to his home town; disappointed, too, that the surreal, hellish punishment regime that he depicted in his extraordinary altarpieces had not acted as a sufficient deterrent against self-indulgence and sin. Gluttony and lechery were two of the deadly sins that – along with avarice – Bosch seems to have enjoyed depicting. Ironically, the town – ’s-Hertogenbosch, or Den Bosch – is best known in Holland today both for its ability to hold a good party and for its culinary excellence. Carnival, which finished with a noisy flourish this week, is here celebrated with gusto; and the favourite local indulgence is the Bosch bol. This is a sort of outsize profiterole – a spherical confection of sugar, chocolate and cream that is as deliciously self-indulgent as it sounds. But then, it’s a long time since a genuine Bosch painting has been seen in the town, so perhaps the impact of his dire warnings to sinners has faded over the centuries. All that is about to change,
however. Den Bosch has pulled off an extraordinary coup: to mark the 500th anniversary of Bosch’s death in 1516, it has managed to gather together 17 of his 24 surviving works in a unique exhibition that opened in the city’s museum last weekend. Probably not even Bosch himself saw so many of his paintings together at one time. The only sadness is that his most famous triptych, The Garden of Earthly Delights, is too fragile – or precious – to make the journey from its home in the Prado in Madrid. In fact, the whole exhibition will move to the Prado in May, so you could travel to see it in Spain, but it seems perverse, if you are interested in Bosch’s work, not to make the pilgrimage to his home town and see the show there. It’s certainly a pleasant place to enjoy a night or two to frame a visit to what is certain to be one of the outstanding art exhibitions of 2016. Den Bosch is one of those neat little Dutch towns, like Haarlem or Delft, in which you feel instantly relaxed. There are not quite so many stepped gables – they like them levelled off in Den Bosch – and
many of the canals are covered, running under the houses rather than between them, but the pedestrianised cobbled streets have that same sense of history on a human scale. The old town is formed of an axis between the great market square – where Bosch lived as a boy (the house is now a souvenir shop), and where he later kept a studio – and St John’s cathedral which overlooks a shady square, the Parade. At pace, you could walk across it in five or 10 minutes, but somehow you don’t want to. The streets are lined with restaurants and cafés, and a colleague who knows about these things told me that from a shopping point of view it plays a strong hand, too. And there are just enough cultural and architectural sights to spice up the mix. So what, apart from its descent into ribald gluttony, would Bosch make of his home town were he to come back today? He would certainly recognise the market square, though most of the houses and shops have been rebuilt over the intervening f
Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright owner. All FT content is copyright The Financial Times Ltd.
Article Page 1 of 4
349532061 - IANMCI - A24182-4 - 109673407
Source: Edition: Country: Date: Page: Area: Circulation: Ad data: Phone:
The Sunday Telegraph {Discover}
Keyword:
Bosch 500 Year
centuries. He might – if he took one of the canal tours offered to visiting tourists – be a little disconcerted by the garish fibreglass models of some of his more monstrous creations that have been installed at various points on the banks. However, he would be fascinated and no doubt gratified that the religious guild, the Confraternity of the Illustrious Lady, of which he was a member, still survives. The lodge was rebuilt in the middle of the 19th century – in 16th-century style – and it has adapted some of its traditions. But it still operates as a charitable and religious institution (King Willem Alexander is an honorary member) and you can call in to visit the little museum and wood-panelled meeting rooms. But Bosch would feel most at home, and most excited, to see what has happened to the cathedral, one of the last great gothic churches to be built in Europe. The old church had been razed in about 1380 and progress on the ambitious new structure was painfully slow. During his lifetime (Bosch was born in about 1450), he would have witnessed the nave rise from ground level and the completion of the highly ornate chapel bankrolled by the Confraternity of the Illustrious Lady, for which he probably painted the altarpiece (two panels by him are in the current exhibition). But, by the time he died, the nave roof was still not in place. It was finally finished in the decade after his death, and he would, I’m sure, have loved the chance, which is available to visitors this year from April to October, to climb the scaffold and enjoy the view from, and of, the roof. What he would see has been much restored – most of the statuary and paintings were destroyed during the Reformation. But he would at least have been gratified that this part of southern Holland reverted back to Catholicism in the 17th century, and the church adheres more closely to the traditions of which Bosch was such a great exponent. While Bosch’s religious convictions are clear, his art remains largely a mystery. What inspired his surreal imagery, those strange f i di i f
UK Sunday 21, February 2016 11 1025 sq. cm ABC 355044 Weekly page rate £34,000.00, scc rate £80.00 020 7538 5000
transformations and inversions of scale and function, of the organic and the concrete, the giant flowers that become buildings, enormous birds devouring men, the lobster claw transformed into a weird plant? The images of burning cities, the backdrop to several of his versions of hell, probably derive from a conflagration that consumed much of the city when he was in his early teens, and the few drawings that survive (and which are also in the exhibition) reveal a fascination for human deformity. But, for me, the moment – outside of the exhibition – when I felt closest to the spirit of Bosch and his weird world was in the little museum next to the cathedral. Here are gathered some of the few surviving sculptures and gargoyles that were once on the church roof. They are badly eroded, but a couple of two-legged, pot-bellied, web-footed monsters caught my eye – one with the head of a dragon, the other that of a man. They date from about 1500 – when Bosch was at his creative peak. He would certainly have known the masons who worked on them, and they were just the sort of fabulous beasts that would have appealed to him. I’m sure he would be delighted to make their acquaintance again, 500 years later.
nl. Full details of the 500th anniversary and the events associated with it can be found at bosch500.nl.
Nick Trend travelled to Den Bosch with Visit Holland (holland.com). The city is just over an hour from Amsterdam Schiphol airport (served by klm.com, ba.com and easyjet.com from many London and regional airports) on a half-hourly rail service. He stayed at the Duke Hotel (thedukehotel.nl/en), a converted warehouse with 17 rooms from about £120, room only.
Den Bosch essentials Hieronymus Bosch, Visions of Genius continues at the Noordbrabants Museum until May 8. Book online at tickets.hnbm. l F ll d il
Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright owner. All FT content is copyright The Financial Times Ltd.
Article Page 2 of 4
349532061 - IANMCI - A24182-4 - 109673407
Source: Edition: Country: Date: Page: Area: Circulation: Ad data: Phone:
The Sunday Telegraph {Discover}
Keyword:
Bosch 500 Year
UK Sunday 21, February 2016 11 1025 sq. cm ABC 355044 Weekly page rate £34,000.00, scc rate £80.00 020 7538 5000
Bosch’s ‘The Adoration of the Magi’, which is on display at the Visions of Genius exhibition
Perhaps his dire warnings to sinners have faded
Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright owner. All FT content is copyright The Financial Times Ltd.
Article Page 3 of 4
349532061 - IANMCI - A24182-4 - 109673407
Source: Edition: Country: Date: Page: Area: Circulation: Ad data: Phone:
The Sunday Telegraph {Discover}
Keyword:
Bosch 500 Year
BOSCH RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION PROJECT; ALAMY
UK Sunday 21, February 2016 11 1025 sq. cm ABC 355044 Weekly page rate £34,000.00, scc rate £80.00 020 7538 5000
Den Bosch, right, is one of those Dutch towns in which you feel instantly relaxed; a statue commemorating Hieronymus Bosch, below
Reproduced by Gorkana under licence from the NLA (newspapers), CLA (magazines), FT (Financial Times/ft.com) or other copyright owner. No further copying (including printing of digital cuttings), digital reproduction/forwarding of the cutting is permitted except under licence from the copyright owner. All FT content is copyright The Financial Times Ltd.
Article Page 4 of 4
349532061 - IANMCI - A24182-4 - 109673407